Chapter 52 Chapter Fourteen Ming Jin Ningyuan Battle

After the Battle of Sarhu, the Later Jin Army successively captured Shenyang and Liaoyang in March 1621, occupying more than 70 castles east of the Liaohe River.Nurhachi moved the capital to Liaoyang, and continued to defeat the Ming army, occupying Guangning (now Beizhen County, Liaoning Province), forming a threat to the area within Shanhaiguan.The news of Guangning's fall spread to Beijing, the capital, and the Ming government was in a panic.Did he resist Houjin outside Shanhaiguan or retreat inside?These two propositions were discussed among the ministers but could not be resolved.Ming Xizong appointed Sun Chengzong as Minister of the Ministry of War, and asked him to save the crisis in Liaodong; he also sent a man named Wang Zaijin to serve as Liaodong's economic strategy, and specifically commanded the military there.Wang Zaijin was a timid person. Not only did he not dare to fight in Liaodong, but he wanted to use the name of shortening the front to give up a large area of ​​land outside the pass and retreat to Shanhaiguan.This opinion was strongly opposed by his subordinate Yuan Chonghuan.

Yuan Chonghuan is generous, ambitious, courageous and resourceful in doing things.He is very concerned about the military and likes to talk about the military. He often talks about border defense with old veterans and asks them about the mountains and rivers on the frontier.In the second year of Tianqi (1622 A.D.), he served as a low-level official in the Ministry of War - the head of the Ministry of War.Soon, Guangning fell, and the court panicked.People were talking about it, and Yuan Chonghuan rode a horse alone and inspected inside and outside Shanhaiguan alone.After returning, he reported the situation in Shanhaiguan to the court in detail, and volunteered to ask the court to give him money and food for soldiers, horses and food, and went to Liaodong to take on the important task of defense.At this time, some ministers of the imperial court were frightened by Nurhachi's iron cavalry and had nothing to do, so they decided to send Yuan Chonghuan to supervise the army outside the pass.

Yuan Chonghuan believed that the policy of active defense should be adopted, sticking to the outside of the pass to defend the inside of the pass.He advocated the establishment of a solid line of defense in the important fortress of Ningyuan (now Xingcheng County, Liaoning Province) to prevent the Hou Jin army from going south.However, this correct opinion was not supported by Wang Zaijin, who advocated passive defense.Yuan Chonghuan had no choice but to report his opinions in writing to Prime Minister Ye Shanggao, and pointed out Wang Zaijin's mistake of passive defense.Ye Shanggao asked Sun Chengzong to go to Shanhaiguan to inspect the situation in person before making a decision.

Sun Chengzong came to Shanhaiguan to conduct investigations and inspections, and gained a detailed understanding of the situation outside the customs.He believes that Ningyuan is close to the mountains and the sea, and Juehua Island on the right (in the sea southeast of Xingcheng County, Liaoning Province, now called Juhua Island) stands in the sea and forms a corner with it. It is indeed a dangerous place. .If strong fortresses are built at these two places, the passage of entry can be controlled.Therefore, he decided to assign Yuan Chonghuan and Yan Mingtai the important tasks of defending Ningyuan City and Juehua Island respectively.Sun Chengzong himself was stationed at Shanhaiguan, and took a series of measures to strengthen defense, and built Shanhaiguan into a relatively strong pass city.

Then, Sun Chengzong devoted all his energy to running Ningyuan.He successively ordered Zu Dashou, Yuan Chonghuan and others to build Ningyuan City.According to Yuan Chonghuan's regulations, the city wall of Ningyuan was built to be three feet two feet high and two feet four feet wide, and the female wall for archery on the city was six feet high.After Ningyuan City was built, it was equipped with various firearms and artillery stones, including the relatively powerful "Western cannon" at that time, and specially trained gunners.Ningyuan has become a fairly strong military town.Sun Chengzong also sent troops to garrison Jinzhou, Songshan (in the south of Jinxian County, Liaoning Province), Xingshan (in the southwest of Jinxian County), Youtun (in the east of Jinxian County), Daling River (in the east of Jinxian County), and Xiaoling River (in the south of Jinxian County). Jinxian County) and other places, as the vanguard of Ningyuan.In this way, a Jinning defense line focusing on Jinzhou and Ningyuan was built, and the northeast defense line was pushed forward by more than 200 miles.